July 12-14

On Sunday, after a quick breakfast at the campground cafe, we headed south on I-25, heading for Alamosa. After following the Rocky Mountains on the eastern slope, we finally crossed into the mountains at North La Veta Pass, 9, 413' above sea level. We circled Blanca Peak, 14, 345', 4th highest peak in Colorado, ending up in the San Luis Valley, 30 miles north of the New Mexico border. The San Luis Valley is 50 miles wide and 125 miles long, and is one of the most productive farming areas in the state. It is a high, flat, semi-arid plain, irrigated by artesian wells and the Rio Grande River. We camped at Alamosa KOA, and were in the back row, with a great view of Blanca Peak and the Great Sand Dunes, our tour destination for the day.

Blanca Peak, part of the Sangra de Cristos mountain range.

After setting up, doing laundry, fueling and getting a truck wash, we headed for the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. We were about 20 miles away as the crow flies, or 30 miles away driving, but we could see the dunes clearly from our campsite.

The Great Sand Dunes cover an area of 30 square miles, but the sand extends for 300 square miles. The dunes tower up to 750' high, and are surrounded by mountains and creeks. The wind blows the sand toward the mountains, where the creeks return the sand back to the valley floor. The dunes are pretty stable now, with no apparant new sand introduced. The surrounding 300 square miles of sand is stablized by plant life, and does not change. It is mostly free range for ranchers. We had planned to wait until toward evening to go to the dunes, since that is the best time to photograph them. However, storms were moving in, and not being familiar with the area, we decided to do as much as we could in the late afternoon. As we approached the dunes, watching the storm coming in from the west, I kept singing John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" in my head:

There's a storm across the desert, the clouds are rolling in,

the afternoon is heavy on my shoulder.

There's a truck out on the freeway, a mile or more away,

the winding of its wheels just makes me colder.

Storm to the west of the sand dunes.

When we got to the Visitor's Center, we just made the beginning of the film, which we always try to see. After the film, the shades opened to reveal the dunes from the picture windows - awesome!

After touring the dunes, we headed to town for a bite to eat. Alamosa was actually surprisingly large, and the downtown section was just like we would picture a western town. The Mexican influence in the area is very evident - with the many Mexican restaurants. We ended up at one, and Rick enjoyed the buffet, sampling lots of Mexican foods. After dinner, I positioned my chair to enjoy the mountain view as I caught up on blogging Colorado Springs. Rick set up his campfire in a can, and Haley enjoyed entertaining the neighbors with her tail-chasing. She didn't go very long, though, since we were at about 7,960' above sea level. She tired out quickly! There was a dog park in the campground - a fenced in area with some obstacles where dogs can play off their leashes. On their nightly walk, Rick took Haley to the dog park, unhooked her leash, and sat down on the bench to watch her enjoy freedom. How did she do that? By jumping on the bench beside him, leaning on him, and trembling. What a dog!

On Monday morning, we headed north through the San Lius Valley. We were flanked by the Sangre De Cristos (Blood of Christ) mountains to our east, and the San Juan mountains to the west. We drove 50 miles through the valley with NO turns or curves in the road. We were amazed that most of the homes we saw were trailers of varying size - from travel trailers to mobile homes. They appear so vulnerable in the middle of the valley, and were few and far between. We passed a solar farm - acres and acres of solar panels.

Typical ranch home in the San Luis Valley - as we've seen in many areas of Colorado.

Solar farm in the San Luis Valley.

I kept saying "This looks like a painting - it doesn't look real".

We continued north over Poncha Pass at 9,101', and entered into an entirely different valley. Where the San Luis valley was sand and scrub brush and very flat, this valley was rolling green hills. In fact, when we rounded the top to a view of the valley, I just gasped and said "There are no words to describe what we are seeing". Every turn and hill brings another amazing sight. The other song that has been going through my head has been "How Great Thou Art", and I have been so thankful that God has provided all of this awesome evidence of his might and power, for us to enjoy. We passed the Chalk Cliffs - towering white sheer cliffs on the side of a mountain. We arrived in Buena Vista about 11:00 - much less time than we anticipated.

Indescribable - the contrasts of the different layers of the valley, hills and mountains.

Chalk Cliffs.

Buena Vista lives up to its name (Good View), and the Buena Vista KOA was nestled on the side of a mountain, overlooking the valley and the mountains to the west. It is at about 8,000', and we are feeling the altitude. We had a great view of 5 peaks over 14,000' as part of the Saswatch Mountain Range, including the Collegiate Peaks - Yale, Harvard and Princeton.

The view from our camper!

After setting up, we ventured into Buena Vista to search for lunch. The downtown area was quaint, just like we would picture a western town -lots of little shops and restaurants. After lunch, Rick dropped me off at a quilt shop :) where I bought some fabric, while he went in search of fuel and a hardware store. We then headed into the mountains to find a ghost town. There were at least 4 in the area. St. Elmo was about 15 miles off the main road, and the last 6 miles were dirt road. We drove right by the Chalk Cliffs, as well as many people with ATVs and off-road motorcycles. We arrived at St. Elmo to find a Country Store, many abandoned buildings and some buildings which were being bought for summer or vacation homes, but nothing was remodeled. There were hummingbirds everywhere, and a chipmunk feeding station was set up by the owner of the country store. There were boards of varying sizes set up at different angles on top of each other, and people would sit (or lay) on the boards, while the chipmunks scurried over and under the boards and people! There was a brief rainshower while we were there, making it cold enough to chase us inside the store until it was over. After our tour, we relaxed back at the campground, where Haley made friends with the neighbors, especially Sally, the little girl. This was probably the friendliest KOA staff we have ever encountered.

Part of the St. Elmo ghost town.

Chipmunk feeding station in St. Elmo.

On Tuesday, after a pancake breakfast at the Cook Shack in the camp, we headed north to Estes Park, the town just east of Rocky Mountain National Park. The drive was about 4 1/2 hours, and Haley sat up, alert and watching for wildlife the entire time. She seemed mesmerized by the 'Swift' truck which we followed for most of the trip. She occasionally would lay down, only to pop right back up again, like she didn't want to miss a second. There were lots of horses and cows for her to see today, and we saw a herd of elk! We went across 2 high passes - Red Hill Pass at 9,993' and Kenosha Pass at 10,001'. We had to skirt around Denver - ugh! The people and traffic are things we definitely don't miss! The drive north of Boulder in the mountains were again relaxing. We are camped just outside the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, at Spruce Lake RV Park. We tried to get advance reservations at KOA, but found that they, and many other campgrounds were full. This park has a great view of the mountain, and is bordered by the Big Thompson River :) But - very squishy park overall. We are at about 7,522'. A brief search for dinner found us at a BBQ restaurant not far from the campground, so Rick was in heaven!